


Arm in Arm

by SailorChibi



Series: Pokemon verse [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers as family, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Coulson Lives, Domestic Avengers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, M/M, Nintendo - Freeform, Pokemon, Pokemon Training, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Science, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has A Heart, everyone loves tony, i challenge anyone to tell me otherwise, ignores everything that happened after AOU, minun - Freeform, plusle - Freeform, pokemon are awesome, pokemon in the avengers world, tony stark builds pokemon, you don't need to be familiar with pokemon to read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:46:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: Bruce Banner gets a pokémon, because Hulk already has one.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Pokemon verse [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/424486
Comments: 62
Kudos: 594





	Arm in Arm

**Author's Note:**

> I've been re-reading my old stuff lately and stumbled across the pokémon verse. It immediately made me want to add to it!

Different people though they may be, all of the Avengers could agree on one thing: mind control _sucked_.

"I'm open to ideas here." Steve's voice was a whisper even over the communication line. "Anyone?"

"I might be able to put an arrow in her," Clint said. "My line of sight isn't very good, but if [Golbat](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/042.shtml) could pick me up about twenty feet -"

"Avengers! Prepare for your doom!" The speaker was a statuesque woman clad in green armor with long, dark hair and brightly painted lips. There was a gold crown on her head; a gem in the middle of the crown was glowing a deep red. The Hulk stood placidly next to her, eyes glowing the same shade of red as the gem.

"Seriously people, ideas," Steve hissed.

“We don’t even know if killing her will free the Hulk, or if that’ll just make things worse,” Sam muttered.

"Hulk, here are your orders. You will smash this city to the ground and destroy anyone who tries to get in your way." The woman cast a hand towards New York, and as a one all of the Avengers tensed. "Go forth and destroy!"

Hulk roared loudly, a sound that sent chills down the spines of anyone close enough to hear and took a single step towards the nearest building. That was when Tony made his move. He swooped in overhead and dropped [Jigglypuff](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/039.shtml) right on top of Hulk's head. Hulk grunted in confusion as the fluffy pink pokémon bounced off of his head, hit the ground and rolled harmlessly to a stop. For a moment, everyone, enemy included, blinked dumbly at the little pokémon as Jigglypuff jumped to its feet.

"Jiggly!" Jigglypuff said accusingly, pointing at Hulk.

Tony let the faceplate snap up, hovering well out of Hulk's reach, and said, "Okay, Jigglypuff. Let 'er rip!"

"[Jigglypuff, Jigglyyyypuff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryxRN29ev3s)." Jigglypuff began to sing. It was a soft, melodic sound that wasn’t unpleasant to the ears.

"What the hell is this?" the woman shouted. "Hulk, go smash!'

Hulk didn't move. His heavily lidded eyes were locked onto Jigglypuff and he was starting to sway. Tony held his breath, literally crossing his fingers, and finally gave a triumphant grin as Hulk toppled over with a tremendous crash, sound asleep. The woman was left staring in shock and Tony seized his chance; he aimed the repulsors at her and opened fire. She screamed as she was blasted off her feet and thrown backwards. Before she could get up, Steve and Bucky were on her. In a matter of minutes, she was handcuffed and being led into custody by SHIELD agents.

"Great job, Jigglypuff," Tony said, letting the armor retract. He stepped out and leaned down and pick up the pokémon.

"Jiggly?" Jigglypuff dodged his outstretched hands to poke at the Hulk. Except that it wasn't really the Hulk anymore - green skin and muscles were shrinking away into Bruce Banner, a feat which never failed to fascinate Tony. Sometimes he thought there was an element of magic to what had happened to Bruce, even though Bruce insisted that it was purely scientific. If Tony could only harness the science and/or magic behind that, he'd be able to create perfectly functioning pokéballs...

"Tony!" Out of nowhere, Steve scooped him up in a hug that made Tony squeak in surprise.

"St-Steve! Wh-what are you d-doing?" Tony stuttered out in between gasps of air. Much as he might love and covet Steve’s hugs, sometimes a supersoldier's grip could be a little too tight.

"You're so amazing," Steve said, setting Tony down, and then he was pulling Tony into a deep kiss that left Tony's toes curling and his heart pounding.

"Let the guy breathe, Steve," Bucky said from somewhere to their left, sounding way too amused.

Tony stumbled a little when Steve let him go, his head spinning. He and Steve had been taking things very slowly, and that was the kind of kiss that had only existed in Tony's fantasies until this moment. He stared at Steve in shocked confusion, uncertain as to what had warranted that kind of reaction. Steve just beamed back at him, looking like he’d like nothing more than to kiss Tony again.

"See, you broke him," Bucky said. "Now how are we going to wake Bruce up?"

"I'm fine," Tony said dazedly. "Bruce, um. Right. Bruce will wake up on his own. All Jigglypuff did was put him to sleep. That's kind of what she does." This time he was able to bend down and pick Jigglypuff up, tucking the pokémon comfortably in the crook of his arm. "In the pokémon television show and games, Jigglypuff's song will put anyone who hears it to sleep. Obviously that’s not possible in real life, but I modified Bruce's communicator to produce a special wavelength that has the same effect... but since Bruce's is the only one like that, it didn't have an effect on anyone else."

He had based the idea off of the sonic taser that Obadiah Stane had once used to paralyze Tony right before ripping the arc reactor out of Tony's chest. It had taken Tony a little time to do so, both because he had to figure out how to appropriately modify the sound waves and because he needed to come to terms with the memories that came over him every time he so much as looked at the taser, but he had done it for Bruce's sake. And he was relieved to know that it had worked, since they had never gotten the chance to test it on the Hulk.

"Amazing," Steve repeated, darting in to press another kiss to Tony's mouth. Then he was off, jogging down towards where Sam and Natasha were waving to him.

“Um,” Tony said.

“You saved a lot of people by cutting that bitch off at the pass,” Bucky explained kindly. “That’s why Steve is so happy. No one wanted to have to fight the Hulk. New York would’ve been screwed if you weren’t here, and if you hadn’t gifted us all pokémon.”

Tony flushed, finally catching on, and stared intently at the top of Jigglypuff’s head. “It was no big deal,” he murmured awkwardly. It still felt weird to receive genuine compliments from the team like that, even though he cherished each one that he got. Sometimes it just seemed like he was waiting for the moment when the rug would be ripped out from underneath him…

“It _is_ a big deal. Hulk is lucky you made him that pokémon,” Bucky said. He gently clapped Tony on the shoulder and then departed, walking over to where Natasha was standing.

That left Tony standing alone with Jigglypuff and the unconscious Bruce, though SHIELD agents were approaching with a stretcher. Tony stared down at Jigglypuff, thinking hard. He had originally created Jigglypuff with Bruce in mind, but that wasn’t really true, was it? Jigglypuff was more of a failsafe for Hulk. Her presence gave Bruce comfort, but he didn’t necessarily _benefit_ from her.

He’d given Peter two pokémon, one for Peter Parker and one for Spider-Man, for the sake of Peter’s secret identity. But since none of the other Avengers had kept their identities a secret, he’d never stopped to consider that maybe one of them deserved a second pokémon too. A sense of guilt crept up on him, and he realized he needed to rectify that as quickly as possible.

He stayed long enough to be sure that the SHIELD agents were careful as they loaded Bruce onto the stretcher, then let Jigglypuff go with him with strict instructions to sing again if Bruce were to wake up with glowing red eyes. Then he stepped back into the armor and flew up to the top of a building about two blocks away from where the crux of the battle had gone down.

“Min! Minun min minun!”

“Plu! Plusle! Plu!”

“Yeah, yeah. Hello to you too,” Tony said, laughing as [Minun](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/312.shtml) and [Plusle](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/311.shtml) literally jumped on him the instant the armor was close enough. They hadn’t liked having to stay on the building, but Tony had insisted. If the Hulk had started rampaging out of control, he hadn’t wanted them anywhere near the damage.

“Min?” Minun asked, scaling the armor until she was face-to-face with the helmet. Tony obediently let it retract, and then smiled as Minun licked his cheek.

“I know. Hey, how would you two feel about a new friend?” he asked. “I realized today that Brucie-Bear needs another pokémon. One that’s just for him.”

“Plus!” Plusle said with interest.

Assuming that was a query, Tony shrugged as best he could in the armor. “I don’t know which pokémon yet. I’m gonna have to look into which one would be best for Bruce.” He frowned thoughtfully. There were literally hundreds of pokémon, and he had only made a handful. Sometimes the hardest part was figuring out narrowing it down.

He pondered it all the way back to the tower. Bruce didn’t necessarily need defending the way some of the Avengers or associated friends and family did; unlike say Tony or Rhodey, the Hulk was always with Bruce. So unless someone managed to knock Bruce out or mind control him, he could always turn into the Hulk to defend himself. But at the same time, Tony wanted the pokémon to have a few good attacks that could knock someone for a loop if need be.

But it would also be good if the pokémon could fly. Jigglypuff was fantastic, but her one downside was that she couldn’t always make it to where the Hulk was. So if Bruce had a second pokémon that could fly, that pokémon would be able to help Jigglypuff get to where she needed to be. He just didn’t know if a flying pokémon would suit Bruce, and he was reluctant to make a second pokémon all about Hulk again.

“Hmm, J, pull up a list of all the pokémon that can fly,” Tony said as he entered the workshop.

“Compiling a list,” JARVIS replied. Moments let, said list holographically formed right in front of Tony’s nose. He squinted at it and realized that there were actually two lists: one of purely flying type pokémon, and one of pokémon with a secondary typing.

Well, that was interesting. Tony paid more attention to the second list, quickly scrolling through. Turned out there were a lot of pokémon with two types. He found his attention drawn to the flying/grass types. Thus far, he had only created one grass type pokémon. Cooper had been given a [Seedot](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/seedot/). A grass type could work for Bruce too, Tony realized with a flush of excitement. His eyes landed on one particular pokémon and a slow smile spread across his face.

“What do you think?” he asked the room in general.

“Plu!” Plusle said.

“Min!” Minun chirped.

“Excellent choice,” JARVIS added. “Shall I start collecting all known information about this pokémon?”

“Please,” Tony said, leaning back in his chair. It would take him a while to actually build the pokémon; even though he had the process down to a science now, it still took about seven weeks from start to finish by the time he had the right materials and had actually completed things to his usual high standard. JARVIS could craft the basic body, but Tony did everything else by hand.

He put in an order for the appropriate materials while JARVIS was finishing off the list, which was comprised of everything from official Nintendo data to fanart from random artists on the internet. Tony was just starting to get into looking through the fanart, which often helped him figure out how the pokémon should look in real life, when JARVIS spoke up again.

“Sir, Captain Rogers is requesting your presence at dinner.”

“What? It’s that late?” Tony muttered. It seemed like he’d only been down in the workshop for mere minutes. But when he checked his phone for the time, he realized he’d been down here for well over five hours. Going through the list must have taken him more time than he thought.

He briefly contemplated asking JARVIS to tell Steve that he was busy, but ultimately decided against it. That would only earn him a personal visit from Steve, and if Steve came down here then Tony wouldn’t be able to do any work anyway since he liked to keep his pokémon secret during the creation process. It was easier to just go upstairs, eat, and then he’d be able to squirrel himself away for the rest of the night.

“Okay, tell him I’m on my way up,” Tony said, standing. He scooped up Plusle and Minun and headed for the elevator, pleased with his progress.

No sooner had the elevator doors opened on the communal floor then someone grabbed Tony and hugged him. Tony squeaked in surprise, nearly dropping his pokémon. Plusle scrambled up onto Tony’s shoulder; Minun avoided the process entirely by jumping down and sauntering over to where [Butterfree](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/butterfree/) and [Marill](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/183.shtml) were playing with Nate. It took Tony longer than it should have to realize that this time, his assailant was Bruce.

“Um, Bruce?” Tony said, slowly bringing his arms up around Bruce. Over Bruce’s shoulder, he spotted Steve, Clint, and Coulson smiling at them. Tony widened his eyes at them, hoping for an explanation or maybe even some help, but Clint merely winked in return. _Winked_. What the hell was that supposed to mean?!

"Thank you," Bruce breathed, sounding like he was about to cry.

"Thank you?" Tony repeated. "For what?"

"For stopping the Hulk. I would've - he would've -" Bruce couldn't seem to get the rest of his sentence out, but Tony understood nevertheless. His heart sank and he hugged Bruce tighter.

"Hey, we wouldn't have let that happen again," he said gently. "If Jigglypuff hadn't worked, I would've had VERONICA down here in a hot minute. New York was never at risk, Bruce, I promise."

Bruce just shook his head and said again, "Thank you, Tony. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," Tony said, even though no gratitude was necessary, and hugged his friend until Bruce seemed to feel comfortable enough to let go. Bruce stepped back, discretely wiping at his eyes, which Tony kindly pretended not to notice. He felt bad now for having been so caught up in the idea of a new pokémon that he hadn't gone with Bruce to SHIELD. He hoped that a familiar face had been there when Bruce woke up.

"Come on, guys, supper's ready," Coulson said, gesturing to them both. "You both must be hungry."

"I'm starving," Bruce admitted with a little laugh, hooking his arm through Tony's and dragging Tony after him into the dining room, much to Tony's surprise. The table was about half full - Thor, Vision, Wanda, Pietro, and Sam were all away, and Laura, Lila and Cooper had gone out for the night with Laura's sister, according to Clint - so Tony ended up being dragged into a seat in between Natasha and Bruce. Before he could protest, Natasha was shoving a bowl of pasta at him.

"Shut up and eat," she said.

"Rude," Tony said, making a face at her, but he took the pasta and put some onto his plate before handing it to Bruce.

"So tell me," Bruce said, taking the bowl. "That communicator... could that be implanted into my head?"

Tony almost choked on his bite of pasta. "What?!'

"It was just an idea I had. Sometimes the Hulk isn't very careful when it comes to the communicators. If it was knocked off of me, it wouldn't work," Bruce explained. "I'd have the same problem if an enemy noticed the communicator and removed it. But if you were to implant it into my head -"

"That's..." Tony felt a little faint. "I don't know. I've never thought about it like that. Maybe?"

Bruce nodded, like he'd been expecting that. "I know you're really busy, but maybe it's something we could look into."

"Could you even undergo surgery?" Natasha asked skeptically, leaning around Tony. "I thought you Hulked out whenever something like that happened."

"I don't know for sure. But I thought... if it was someone the Big Guy trusted..." Bruce shrugged.

Meaning that Hulk trusted Tony. Tony wasn't really sure what to do with that information, never mind the realization that Bruce wanted him to come up with something that would be surgically implanted into Bruce's head. Though he could see where Bruce was coming from, it didn't sit right with him. If Jigglypuff weren't around, the implant would be useless... unless Bruce wanted to come up with some other kind of switch. But if they did that, what was to stop that switch from getting into the wrong hands? Then you'd have someone out there who could flip a switch and make Bruce pass out.

He remained quiet as Natasha and Bruce discussed it, listening to their commentary. Natasha seemed to think that it was an excellent idea, and Bruce was clearly warming to the idea with her support.

"What happens if Jigglypuff isn't around?" Natasha wanted to know. "It only works with the exact frequency of her voice, right?"

"JARVIS can play her singing. And don't worry, a recording will only work if it's played by JARVIS," Tony piped up.

Bruce looked at Tony in wonder. "How did you accomplish that?"

"It wasn't that hard. It has to do with specific frequencies. The odds of someone else figuring out the exact combination are one in a billion." Tony tried not to sound as smug as he felt, but that really had been an impressive bit of work on his part.

"Smart," Natasha said with an approving nod.

"Thanks. I wanted to make sure that not everyone could knock the Hulk out. Kinda defeats the purpose," Tony said.

Natasha propped her chin on her hand. "So is that your contingency plan for if Jigglypuff can't get to the Hulk?"

"Among other things," Tony said lightly, shoveling the rest of his pasta into his mouth. Before either of them could question him too deeply, he jumped to his feet and took his empty plate into the kitchen. There, he snagged a couple of the cookies that Laura and the kids had baked earlier and headed back down to the workshop.

It actually took him about two months to finish with Bruce's new pokémon, but only because Tony made a couple of unique additions that required research into other pokémon. It meant that the design wasn't 100% true to the Nintendo original, but in this case he didn't think that Bruce would mind too much. After a long night of trying to finish things off, Tony sat back in his chair and looked over the pokémon. So far as his critical eye could see, everything was looking good. JARVIS was just running the last of the tests; Tony finally allowed himself to smile as the tests came up with no errors.

"Plus?" Plusle said, sitting up from where she was curled up on the couch with Minun.

"It's time, girls," Tony said, gently picking the new pokémon up. "Let's go introduce Bruce to his new friend."

Plusle and Minun skittered after him as Tony walked into the elevator. JARVIS took him up to the communal floor, where reportedly Bruce was watching a movie with Laura, Lila, and Natasha. As the doors opened, Tony realized that Steve and Bucky were also there, but Steve was reading a book and Bucky was frowning fiercely down at a ball of yarn and the two knitting needles he was holding. Naturally, Lila was the first to notice what Tony was holding.

"Another pokémon!" she shrieked, and everyone looked directly at Tony.

"Tony, what's that?" Steve said, setting his book down.

"This is [Skiploom](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/188.shtml)," Tony said. "It's for Bruce."

Bruce blinked. "Wait - for me? I already have Jigglypuff," he said, gesturing to Jigglypuff. The pokémon was curled up resting beside Lila's [Sylveon](https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/sylveon/).

"Hulk has Jigglypuff, technically. It occurred to me that you deserved a pokémon that was made with you in mind." Tony let go of Skiploom. Steve and Bucky both tensed like they were ready to jump up to catch it, but Skiploom didn't fall. Instead, it began to float while the bright yellow petals on its head shifted around.

"Skiploom!" Lila repeated. She scrabbled in her pocket and came up with pokédex, pointing it at Skiploom.

"Skiploom," FRIDAY said. "A grass/flying pokémon, it is known as the cottonweed pokémon. Skiploom spreads its petals to absorb as much sunlight as possible. The bloom on top of its head opens and closes as the temperature fluctuates and its flower blossoms when the temperature rises above 64 °F (18 °C). Because of this, it is sometimes used as a thermometer. It floats in the air to try to get closer to the sun but closes its flower and immediately hides under the shade of a tree when it rains."

"Basically, it's a grass pokémon that can also fly," Tony said. "So that means if Hulk is in battle, Skiploom can bring Jigglypuff to you. But, Skiploom can also help you out in the lab if you need her to. I took the liberty of adding a couple of extra appendages."

"Appendages?" Bruce echoed, eyebrows shooting up.

"Skiploom, pick up Minun, would you?" Tony said, grinning.

"Skip!" Skiploom exclaimed excitedly. Two thin vines slid out from under its flower petals and wrapped around Minun's waist. Minun squealed in joy as she was lifted off the ground by a few inches. Skiploom made a slow circle around Tony, holding Minun, before Tony held out his arm and Skiploom dropped Minun into them. Plusle quickly scaled Tony’s body to sniff at Minun curiously.

"That is really cool," Laura said, smiling.

"And a great idea," Natasha added. "Now I see what you meant when you said there other things you were thinking about as a contingency plan."

Tony winked at her. "I didn't want to say too much," he admitted. "Skiploom was nothing more than a thought in the back of my head at the time." He looked up Skiploom with a surge of pride. He'd ended up borrowing from Bulbasaur's design a little bit to incorporate the vines into Skiploom, but he thought it worked. It meant that Skiploom would be able to use attacks like Vine Whip, which would give an extra edge when it came to protecting Bruce if necessary.

Bruce slowly stood up and walked over, holding his arms out. Skiploom flew right over to him and dropped into his arms, earning a faint huff of surprise from Bruce as he felt Skiploom's weight. Skiploom sent out one of its vines and curiously tapped the side of Bruce's face. Bruce laughed and Tony smiled; Skiploom was known as one of the happier pokémon out there, and he hoped that it would help to bring more smiles to Bruce's face.

"Thank you, Tony," Bruce said, hugging Skiploom to his chest. "He's amazing."

"He?" Laura said.

"Definitely a he," Bruce confirmed, lightly stroking the petals atop Skiploom's head. They weren't real, of course, but Tony had made sure you'd never know it from the way they felt.

"Jiggly!" Jigglypuff rushed over to them. Bruce knelt to introduce the two pokémon to each other.

Natasha got up and walked over to Tony. "Good job," she whispered.

"Thanks," Tony said. As much as he appreciated her comment, he found himself unable to take his eyes off of Bruce. He absently hugged Minun and Plusle tighter, biting his lip to stop the huge smile that wanted to break out across his face. Because at that moment, it was like years of tension and stress had slid right off of Bruce's shoulders. He was smiling and laughing, and that was worth more than anything else.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
